Perry: No sleep apnea and it’s a ‘no-never-mind now’ anyway

Gov. Rick Perry said his doctor checked out the idea that he had sleep apnea while he was on the presidential campaign trail – and he even used a machine meant to help with the ailment for a month – but that it “probably wasn’t a good diagnosis.”

Gov. Rick Perry said after speaking at a Google event Wednesday that he ruled out sleep apnea.

Asked directly if he had it, Perry said, “No.”

Instead, Perry said he was kept awake by a nerve issue in his foot. He’d had back surgery before launching his presidential campaign last year. Texas Tribune reporter Jay Root disclosed the sleep apnea diagnosis in a campaign-trail e-book, “Oops!”

“I slept pretty much all night last night. Best I can tell, I didn’t snore or make any untowards noises,” Perry said after speaking at a Google for Entrepreneurs Day event Thursday.

Asked about the machine that was prescribed to help, and described in Root’s book, Perry said, “We tried for a month, and didn’t seem to make any difference. My issue was one of a hyper-fusion of that nerve in my foot that kept me awake and we just couldn’t – we looked at a lot of different things.

“That was one idea that came up, and the doctor said, ‘Well you may have it. You may not,’” Perry said. “Anyway, it’s a no never mind now. I’m sleeping rather well.”

Asked if it was confirmed that he didn’t have sleep apnea, but that it was one thing doctors checked out, Perry said, “Yeah that would be my analysis of it, that they were looking at all the possibilities, and that was one. I’d still be using it if it worked. Didn’t work for me, so – “